BSN students may challenge two of the required upper division nursing courses - NURS 365: Health Assessment and NURS 377: Nursing Leadership. Nursing challenge exams are prepared by Loyola nursing faculty and contain 150-200 multiple choice items.

Policies governing challenging upper division nursing courses:

1. Nursing challenge exams are given only in New Orleans and in Baton Rouge. Students in the Distance Learning Program (DL) must plan to take a challenge exam at one of these sites.
2. Only students who are currently enrolled in classes at Loyola are permitted to take a Departmental challenge examination.
3. A student must request in writing to take a departmental challenge exam. Deadline for submitting the “Credit by Departmental Examination” request form, along with the challenge fee, is two weeks before the scheduled exam date. The request form may be obtained from the Nursing Office or downloaded from Blackboard. (See page 30 for
   directions for accessing Blackboard.)
4. The challenge exam fee is set by the University and is not refundable. The current challenge examination fee is $200.
5. A challenge exam for a particular course may be taken only once.
6. The passing grade on a challenge exam is 75%.
7. A student who does not achieve a grade of 75% or higher must register for the course.
8. Challenge exams are given at the following times: 2 p.m. on the last Tuesday in January, 2 p.m. on the last Tuesday in June, and 2 p.m. on the last Tuesday in August

Procedures for challenging upper division nursing courses:

1. Obtain a copy of the “Credit by Departmental Examination” request form from the Nursing Office or download the form from the BSN Student Site on Blackboard. Once in the BSN Student Site on Blackboard, click on “BSN Documents” and then click on the “Credit by Challenge Examination” folder.
2. Review the challenge exam guidelines for the particular nursing course. (Guidelines may be downloaded from the BSN Student Site on Blackboard - they are located in the “Credit by Challenge Examination folder”.)
3. Submit the “Credit by Departmental Exam” request form to: Director, School of Nursing, Loyola University New Orleans, 6363 St. Charles Avenue, Box 45, New Orleans, LA 70118. The form must be received no later than two weeks before the scheduled exam.
4. The non-refundable challenge fee must be submitted along with the “Credit by Departmental Examination” request form. Make the check payable to Loyola University New Orleans.
5. The student will receive written notification of the score on the challenge examination approximately one week after taking the exam. On the student transcript, the designation “AP” will be posted in lieu of a grade for the course.

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